Archives quotidiennes : 21 février 2010

This morning, during breakfast, my eye was caught by an image that looked very familiar, so familiar it was like glowing on that cereal box.

It reminded me of the old days of the single-channel MBC, when TV programmes were broadcast only during certain hours of the day (and, of course, of the night). I can’t remember exactly what the schedule was, but you might have something moving on your screen between say 9 or 10 in the morning until 11 or 12 in the night. The rest of the time, you had that fix coloured picture — for those who had a colour TV, which wasn’t our case for quite some time —, which I believe is called a “mire” in standard French. (I’m afraid I don’t know its English name.)

Therefore I picked the cereal box to see what was written on it, but it was in an undecipherable language which must be Afrikaans. In fact that whole side of the box was covered with “interesting” information, half of it in English, half of it in “African Dutch”. Isn’t it funny how easily you can get yourself dragged into reading something that is just lying there?

Unfortunately, I don’t know Afrikaans. It would have helped me understand what “sig” can be. Have you noticed where that damn Sig is hiding?

(Click the image to enlarge and read.)

Somehow it is fascinating, and a bit frustrating, to look at the side of a box printed in an English-speaking country and understand only half of it. Obviously, what is written in Afrikaans is not translated in English, and vice versa. It’s as if Bokomo, the company manufacturing this product, is saying that children need to know both languages.

Normally I don’t eat that stuff, which is primarily for children, but today I had some. May my brain (and my sig) be boosted.